Mention the Dead Sea Scrolls and people might think of rolled documents stashed in caves. But one visiting scholar believes the traditional name for the parchments is misleading.
“What we’re dealing with is that many are really not scrolls,” said James VanderKam, a Notre Dame University professor of Hebrew scriptures. “They’re just bits and pieces left of scrolls that the moist conditions or animals or people wrecking scrolls have left to us.”
The professor brought those scraps to life Wednesday during a standing-room-only lecture to students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He spoke Wednesday and will speak tonight as part of the LeRoy A. Martin Distinguished Lecturer Series.
One student viewed the lecture as a religion’s validation.
“It gives us historical reference on the Christian faith,” said Sherry Chambers, a UTC student from Chattanooga. “It goes a little ways to prove what was written wasn’t just made up some years ago.”